Midnight Dream
by iceprincessinfinity
Summary: While working on a school project with Kyle, Cartman finds himself falling for Ike. Some people accept their relationship...others don't. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Matt and Trey would be horrified by what I'm doing to their creation, I'm sure.

**Author's Note:** So, to my knowledge, this is the first Cartman/Ike story on this site…correct me if I'm wrong, though. So I know this is an unusual pairing, and there's no evidence in the show to back it up…but I wanted it. I was doing my best to think up odd pairings and I thought up this one and I just really wanted to write it so…here it is! Oh, and they're older…this pairing would be so wrong if Ike was still in kindergarten.

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**Midnight Dream: Chapter One**

It had been two whole years since Cartman had last gone over to Kyle's house. He and Kyle were still sort-of friends, that hadn't changed in their entire sixteen years of life. It's just that Kyle preferred to keep Cartman away from his house because his atrocious language would upset his family. No, it was always Stan's house or Cartman's house when the four friends would hang out together. Kyle wouldn't let Cartman near his family, especially his little brother, and Kenny was too poor to want people over at his house often. Not that Cartman particularly minded. Kyle's mom was a bitch, Kyle's dad was an overly happy lawyer, and Kyle's brother was a stupid Canadian Jew. What was his name again? Mike? Ike? Probably one of those two, he just couldn't remember which. But that's okay, he didn't care anyway.

In fact, he still wouldn't be going to Kyle's house, if it wasn't for The Project. Yes, the dreadful project had been assigned just two days ago, in which they were to research the Holocaust with a partner chosen by their teacher. Why this teacher had chosen to put a Nazi wannabe and a Jew together, Cartman could not fathom. He could only come up with a few possible reasons, the first one being that Kyle was doing quite well and he was doing poorly, and so hoped his grade would be raised. Or perhaps she just had a sadistic sense of humor and wanted to see who would kill who first. Either way, Eric Cartman and Kyle Broflovski were stuck working together on a subject neither one of them wanted to touch with a ten foot pole. Kyle for obvious reasons, and Cartman simply because his grade could not afford Kyle getting pissed off at him, as he was bound to.

Cartman's mouth went dry when he realized that he could not be over at his house for the project – there were plenty of books on the Holocaust there, which they would be using for the project, he was sure, but his mother had strictly told him no friends over for a while. He supposed he could always reason with her, always bend her to his will…but he lacked the will necessary to do so. In some odd way, he wanted to be over at Kyle's house. He wanted to see how the place had changed in two years. He wasn't sure exactly why he decided not to fight his mother on her temporary rule, but for whatever reason he was now following a very annoyed Kyle back to his house, anti-Semitic books in hand. "Cartman, behave yourself," snarled Kyle as they reached his front door. "I make no promises, Jew," Cartman smirked as he examined the outside of the house. This part hadn't changed, at least – none of the houses in South Park ever did.

"Welcome home, Bubbie…oh, Eric, well I haven't seen you in a while!" Sheila Broflovski, like the rest of the adults in town, was fooled by how nice Cartman always acted in front of them and thought that he was a fine friend for her little Kyle. "What brings you over here?" Kyle started to answer, but Cartman cut him off smoothly. "It's so nice to see you again, Mrs. Broflovski," he said with mock sarcasm that she didn't pick up on. "Actually, Kyle and I have to work on a school project, I'm sure Kyle told you about it?" She shook her head in confusion, and glared a bit at Kyle. "Ah, well that's fine, it was just assigned today after all, I only expected he might have called you earlier, I guess I was mistaken." Kyle half glared at Cartman, an unspoken question in his eyes. Cartman glanced at him, but didn't make eye contact. "Oh, well you boys have fun!" Kyle's mom called after them as they headed upstairs. Kyle responded with a soft "we will," but he knew his mother probably couldn't hear him.

"What was that all about, fatass?" Kyle demanded when they were safely inside Kyle's room. "Why are you so fucking nice all of a sudden? Yeah, thanks for getting me out of shit with the homework, but why did you do it?" Cartman smiled. "I have my reasons." "Your reasons are never good, you fat fuck…Ike!" Kyle exclaimed as he turned around to see his little brother. Ah. So his name was Ike. He must be eleven or twelve now, Cartman thought. He still looked distinctly boyish, but what a mind he had! Just by taking one look into his small, black, eyes, Cartman could see that here was someone smart enough to defeat him at his own level. "Hi, Kyle. I can't say I've heard you swear often, but I guess this 'fat fuck' here has often enough." He stuck out his hand for Cartman to shake. "I'm Ike, and if I'm correct in my assumptions, you're Eric Cartman." Cartman had been put rather in a daze by the way he talked, and took his hand. "I know we've met already, but it was a few years ago and I wasn't sure you would remember me. Oh, and Kyle?" Kyle turned towards his brother, obviously shocked at his nice manners towards his enemy-friend. "I don't know why you bother to hide swearing from me. I hear worse in school. Suck my balls." He gave Kyle the finger on his way out the door, but turned around, grinning, before he left, so Kyle knew he was only kidding.

"Wow…Ike sure has…grown up," Cartman finished the sentence lamely. Kyle looked at him sharply. "No Jew jokes? No Canadian jokes? No smartass jokes? You must have something reserved for him, Cartman. You have something reserved for everybody." "Jew jokes are reserved for you, Kyle." Cartman smiled an infuriating smile at him before sitting down and opening up his favorite hate speech book. "Put it down, Cartman." It was creepy how Kyle knew what he was doing without even looking at him. Cartman sighed, and closed the book again. "We're going to have to use it eventually, you know." But this brought no response from Kyle, who was engrossed in an internet page. "Oh, this is no good!" he cried out in frustration, clicking out of the internet and laying down on the floor near Cartman. "Wow, Kyle, only a few minutes into working on it and you're already giving up. Got some sand in your vagina?" Kyle lifted his head to glare at the insensitive teenager next to him. "No, Cartman, but I think you have some in yours." Cartman didn't even have time to retort when Sheila Broflovski appeared in the doorway. "Eric, your mom called and said she wasn't going to be home for a while, so you're going to be eating dinner here…it'll be ready in an hour, boys!" She left the room, thankfully not spying the books sitting on the floor that contained titles like _Adolf Hitler: The World's Greatest Hero_. "Great, just what I always wanted – Jew food!" Cartman practically spat the words at Kyle. "What am I supposed to do about it, fatass? It's not like I asked your mom to leave home! Come on, let's just see how much of this we can finish before dinner."

An hour later, a very unhappy Cartman found himself seated at a round table with Kyle and Ike, while Kyle's parents ate by themselves out in the kitchen. "We figured you three would be happier without us adults around, but we'll be right over here if you need us," Sheila stated brightly before leaving them to sit together. Kyle gritted his teeth together. This was infuriating. He decided to just daydream while eating, that's what he normally did, anyway. "Cartman, what's your project on?" Ike asked. He would have asked Kyle, but it was obvious that Kyle wouldn't answer him. "The Holocaust," answered Cartman carefully, eyeing Ike. "A sad subject, indeed…but one which you know a lot about, right?" "Right," answered Cartman, after a slight pause. "Ike, how old are you?" inquired Cartman suddenly. "Eleven now, but I'll be twelve soon. I'm already in the seventh grade." Ike announced this proudly, but Cartman couldn't imagine why you would be proud of being in hard classes at a young age. He decided to voice these opinions to the seemingly ever-cheerful Ike in the hopes of annoying him, but to his chagrin, he was only met with laughter. "It's not like I skipped a grade, I just started early," he explained. "So it's not that I suddenly got a harder workload, I've been building towards it like everyone else in my grade." Cartman nodded. He still didn't think it was anything to brag about, but the kid could do what he wanted to. It wasn't any concern of his. Cartman remembered how on-guard Kyle had always been when the Holocaust was mentioned, something that would prove to make their project difficult. "Ike, do you hate the Germans?" Ike gave him an odd look. "No, why would I?" Now it was Cartman's turn to give the odd look. "For what they did to your people," he explained. "Well…no, not really. It's what they really believed, and you can't hate someone for following their beliefs. And it wasn't as if all of Germany was really to blame, it was only Hitler. They didn't have any choice except to follow him. He had many amazing skills and admirable talents, I only wish that he could have put them to better use." Ike sighed, showing his sorrow at the loss of Hitler's abilities. Cartman looked at him with new respect. He was glad Kyle was daydreaming, otherwise he would have been throwing a fit at this.

A few hours later, Cartman was walking home, humming quietly to himself. Why exactly had he avoided Kyle's house, again? His stupid parents stayed out of their way for the most part, thank god. Kyle…well, Kyle was Kyle. But his little Canadian Jew-rat of a smartypants brother wasn't really bad at all. In fact, some of his views were even similar to Cartman's. He shuddered as he realized this fact. When did he ever think he would be agreeing with a Jew?

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**Author's Note: **So there it is, the first chapter. I hope you liked it…please review, people haven't been reviewing my stories lately and it makes me not want to write them all that much. Oh, and I know the Holocaust is an overused subject when talking about Kyle and Cartman…but I couldn't think of another project that would work so well. Remember, this story will eventually be Ike/Cartman, so homophobes beware!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **If I owned South Park, would I be sitting here writing fanfiction?

**Author's Note: **Well here it is, the second chapter…it's a bit shorter than the first, if I'm not mistaken, but the third one should be out pretty quickly – I got really bored and started writing up a whole bunch of stuff. Oh, and check out the poll I put on my page…I just decided to throw some random choices in there as well as the real ones, I don't expect anyone to pick those and I'm certainly not going to write about them, but check it out!

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**Midnight Dream: Chapter 2**

"Did you have fun with your friend Kyle, dear?" Liane Cartman hadn't changed much over the years. Sometimes she spoiled her son rotten, other times she scolded him until he followed her rules. But she was always sweet – almost too sweet. Cartman was always suspicious of his mother. He could never be sure what her plans were for him, and he didn't pretend to trust her for even a second. But he needed her…he had never learned how to take care of himself. "Yes, Mom…" he responded in a bored tone of voice before heading up to his room. He realized he had forgotten to bring the books back home. Oh well. Either Kyle would bring them to school with him tomorrow, or he could just go over to Kyle's house again after school. It wasn't a great concern, really. With that issue settled, Cartman set his alarm and rolled over, falling asleep almost immediately.

He woke up almost regretfully. How he hated to leave his warm bed in the morning only to be greeted by a rush of the cold air that was common in South Park! But, he surmised, he could go down to the bus stop and see if Kyle had brought his books. Kyle was always there early…probably couldn't wait to get out of his house. Cartman laughed, and imagined what it would be like to wake up in Kyle's house. He bet Stupid Bitch woke him up every morning by coming into his room and speaking in that annoying screechy voice of hers. That would wake him up, for sure. Then he felt an odd emotion: sorrow. Was he feeling sorry for the Jew-rat? No, he couldn't be…he delved deep into his emotions. He was right, he wasn't feeling sorry for the Jew-rat…he was feeling sorry for his brother. That's odd. But he shrugged it off. It would only be a temporary feeling, after all.

He huffed and puffed as he ran up the hill. Cartman hated sports of any kind, and that included running. He wasn't fit enough to handle the challenge, and he doubted he ever would be. There was Kyle, ahead of him. He slowed to a walk. The last thing he wanted was for him to think he really wanted to see him. "Hey, Kyle," Cartman greeted him as he slowed to a stop. "Just 'Kyle'? No 'dirty Jew' or 'frickin' daywalker'?" "Yeah, just 'Kyle'" Cartman told him. "Listen, I left my books over at your house yesterday…" Kyle smiled at him, just a bit. "Yeah, I found them. I don't want them in my house any longer, here." He dug around in his backpack and came up with two books. Eric looked at them. _Highlights of World War II _and _The Secret Behind Concentration Camps._ "Where's my Hitler book?" Cartman asked. "What Hitler book?" asked Kyle. "You know, my Hitler book! The one you told me not to look at! I left that one over there too, where is it?" "That's impossible, Cartman, there were only two books there…trust me, if I found a Hitler book in my house I wouldn't be keeping it there." Cartman relented…he did have a point. Since when would a Jew want a Hitler book? "Okay, well then where is it?" "I don't have it, you asshole! You probably brought it home and forgot about it!" Neither of them had noticed that Stan had now joined them. "What's going on?" he inquired of his best friend. Cartman took Kyle's pause in his answer as an opportunity to say "Hello, gaywad. I was wondering when you would show up." "Shut up, Cartman," he retorted. He wasn't in the mood for fatass attitude. Kyle proceeded to explain the dreaded project to Stan. "Aw, dude, that sucks. I wouldn't want to have to be working with Cartman." "Ay!" Cartman yelled. "Shut your goddamn mouth, pussy!" He turned around as he heard a low chuckle behind him. "What crawled up your ass and died?" It was Kenny, looking happy despite the cold temperature, forceful wind, and raging argument going on around him. "That would be your dinner for tonight, Kenny," Cartman informed him. "Oh…I was wondering where it went. Thanks for keeping it warm for me!" Kenny beamed at him. Cartman rolled his eyes. To an outsider, Kenny might sound naïve, but it was really just a trick he used to annoy the hell out of Cartman. "Dude, there's the bus!" Stan pointed off into the distance. All four of them were glad when it came, and they could finally step into the warmth.

School was quite uneventful, in Cartman's opinion. Then again, school was always pretty much uneventful, except for their stupid teachers trying to act like they actually know something. His last class of the day was history, and he once again got treated to an annoying speech on their project. "Make sure you have nice and creative presentation to give to the class!" she screamed out at the students as the bell rang. No one was paying attention, but they couldn't avoid hearing her anyway. You could hear their teacher coming from a mile away, really. People's voices aren't supposed to be that loud, leaving Cartman and the other students to the conclusion that she was an alien. He wondered aloud to Craig if she would understand Marklar speech, and he laughed. Cartman had told him about the Marklars at some point last year. "Yeah, that would be great! 'Hello, Marklars, welcome to Marklar! Today we are learning about Marklar!' that would be a riot!" "Ha, yeah, it would be. Well listen Craig, I ought to be getting home…important stuff to take care of an all. See you later." He gave Craig a half wave before walking out the front door of the school. _Important stuff,_ indeed. He just wasn't in the mood for really talking to anyone right now.

"Mom! Door!" He yelled three hours later, while he was sitting on the couch eating Cheezy Poofs. He got no response. "Mom!" he yelled again. "Door!" But when he still received no response, he grumbled about lazy people and went to open the door himself. Standing there was none other than Ike Broflovski. "Can I come in?" he asked, trying to hold in a laugh. Cartman quickly wiped the remainder of his Cheezy Poof meal off from around his mouth and let Ike come inside. "Nice house," remarked Ike. "Yeah, thanks, all the houses look the same though." Then Cartman suddenly remembered who he was talking to, and started glaring. "Why are you here?" "To return this," Ike announced, and promptly held out Cartman's missing Hitler book. "Where did you find it?" Cartman demanded, taking it from the kid's outstretched hand. "I took it! I was in Kyle's room after you left and I saw the book and figured you wouldn't mind if I borrowed it. When Kyle got home though he told me to keep an eye out for it because you were throwing a fit about it being missing, so I decided I better return it." "Oh," Cartman for once had nothing to say. "Thanks. It…wasn't a lie, then?" Ike looked confused. "I mean what you said at dinner, about Hitler…that wasn't a lie?" Ike laughed suddenly. "I lie to my family sometimes, but I rarely lie to my friends. Well, see you later." He turned and jogged back to his house. _When did we become friends?_ Thought Cartman.

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**Author's Note:** I'm liking how the story is turning out so far, considering I have no "template" (other similar stories) to follow along with! I hope all of you like it as well, and thanks for giving it a chance!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **South Park doesn't have to suffer being owned by me.

**Author's Note: **Okay, so I had this chapter written earlier, and was just waiting to put it up, but I edited the whole thing!! Oh, and everyone has to thank Raigo for his suggestions, the story would have sucked pretty badly if I hadn't been reminded of character traits :)

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**Midnight Dream: Chapter Three**

"Cartman, pay attention!" The sharp command was given by Kyle Broflovski, who was attempting to think of ideas for presenting their project. "Aw, don't be so hard on him." Kyle's brother Ike was sitting in the back of the room, trying to help them. "I would be bored, too, if this was my project…actually, I am bored. When's lunch?" Kyle glared at his brother, but gave up and laughed. He was hungry too, they had been thinking nonstop for hours and they still had no ideas. "I guess now. Cartman, for the last time, wake up!" Cartman finally looked up. He couldn't believe he had practically fallen asleep in Kyle's room. He never usually slept in front of people, it gave them too much of an opportunity to hurt him. He just felt kind of…safe, in the Broflovski household. Maybe it was because they were such a close family, something he was unaccustomed to but always had secretly wished for. Or maybe it was because Ike and Kyle were possibly the only two people in town who would never take advantage of him, Ike because he was one of Cartman's real friends, and Kyle just because he was really nice.

Actually, he wasn't so sure that he would consider Ike as his friend, although Ike had declared to him just a few days ago that he was indeed his friend. Cartman couldn't figure out exactly why anyone would want to be his friend. He might have been in denial about his weight for years, but he always admitted to himself that he was an asshole. He saw this trait in a positive light, although he was aware that most people hated him for it. It wasn't that he wasn't a good person – somewhere deep, deep, inside him – but people knew to stay away from Eric Cartman, unless you wanted to risk pissing him off and end up eating your parents. Ike didn't seem to be too phased by it, though…unless he didn't know. Yes, that must be it, he wasn't aware of the dangers of being his friend. Well, Cartman certainly wasn't going to say anything. After all, it wasn't his fault if the kid ignored the warnings.

Cartman was jarred out of his thoughts by a loud "ouch!" It looked like Kyle had fallen down the stairs…people don't normally lay down on staircases, do they? Cartman smirked as he pushed past him. Ike, however, leaned over Kyle. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Yeah, Ike, I'm fine, promise. Just scared myself, that's all." Ike nodded and moved to help him up, and then they both headed for the kitchen. Cartman slid into his chair first, and Kyle chose to sit across from him. Ike sat between Kyle and Cartman, grinning at both of them. "Ike, why are you always so happy?" Kyle grumbled. "Because I can be!" Ike shot at him cheerfully. "Life is short, Kyle, are you going to spend your whole life complaining about the people who actually want to enjoy it?" Kyle glared at his little brother. Sometimes he was so smart it made him sick. "If life is so short, we would be able to spend it however we want. Which means you can be happy, and Kyle can be sulky." At those words, both boys looked at Cartman in surprise. Since when was he the voice of reason? "Thanks, Cartman…we'll remember that," Ike started saying slowly, breaking out into a grin as he finished the sentence. Cartman grinned back, and Kyle felt a surge of jealousy. Ike was his brother, not Cartman's! And Cartman is not capable of caring about people! So what was his deal with Ike? What did he want from him?

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When Cartman left the house later, Kyle decided to have a talk with his brother. "Ike, why are you friends with Cartman now?" "Well…I don't know, but we're friends anyway." "I don't like you being so nice to him." "So you want me to be mean to him?" Ike looked confused and a little hurt. "I should have phrased that differently," Kyle told him. "What I meant to say was, I don't like him being so nice to you." Ike sighed. Either Kyle was jealous or concerned, or possibly both."Listen, Ike," Kyle tried again. "Sometimes I don't even think Cartman's _human_. He's mean and downright evil! He's manipulative, and he's only nice to people when he can get something out of it. You're going to get hurt, Ike." Oh, so that was it. He was concerned about Ike's well-being…and probably slightly jealous of the friendship. "I can take care of myself, I'm not a little kid," Ike told him. He knew all the low tricks Cartman had pulled on people in the past, and while it bothered him because of the way he had been raised, it didn't bother him too much because he knew he could handle it. Besides, he had been looking for a friend for a long time. Someone to understand him, to understand all his problems.

Ike didn't have the great life everyone assumed he did. His parents cared about him a lot, but he thought they cared just a little too much. He never really had a moment to himself, he was always near someone in the family. So his home life became one big lie. He couldn't tell them what was going on at school, he just had to find something to be happy about – usually his grades – and focus on that, pretending it was all he cared about. Maybe there wouldn't have been a problem if he hadn't started school early. But none of the kids really liked it that the youngest boy in their class was smarter than them. He tried not to show it, but he couldn't help it. He had a reputation for being a genius, and it seemed to follow him wherever he went. It started out with everyone pretending to be his friend…he figured out later it was because they would get a good reputation with the teachers, and they would also copy his homework whenever he turned his back. After that, Ike had stopped believing people would ever want to be his friend. The few true friends he could have had were scared away by his anti-social behavior. And now Ike had finally gotten his wish: that everyone would just ignore him. He was a nobody in school, and it was so shameful. He thought it was what he wanted, but that was because he had no idea how much worse it would really be. He guessed that some things, you just have to learn the hard way.

"Ike, are you paying attention?" Kyle almost screamed at his brother. Ike winced. He must have gotten his temper from their mom, because she was the only other person who could look that angry. "I was telling you to not be friends with him. Okay?" "No, it's not okay!" Ike wasn't smiling now. He was glaring at his older brother. "I can make my own decisions!" "Not if you make bad ones!" Kyle retorted. "I'm supposed to look out for you, so I'm telling you not to be friends with him!" Ike had had enough of this argument. "Well, I'm sorry, then. I know you're trying to look out for me, and I suppose I do appreciate it. But _Eric_ is my _best friend_, so you'll just have to live with it!" /he stormed up the stairs and into his room. "Ike! You get back down here right now!" But even though Ike heard him, he had no intention of going back downstairs. He was going to go make a phone call.

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Cartman sat on the bench near Stark's Pond and shivered. He was waiting for Ike, who had told him to meet him there in half an hour. He was lucky Cartman really didn't have anything better to do. He checked his watch and then sighed. He had only been waiting there for five minutes. It felt like a lot longer, though. Presently, he saw Ike come from the direction of his house and wave at him. He half-waved back, even though his hand felt frozen. "Ike, where have you been?" Cartman demanded. He wasn't really too angry, just a little irritable…but he did have a reputation to keep up. "Sorry, I've never sneaked out before, it's a lot harder than it looks." "Well, geez, Ike, it's not that hard." Cartman tried to sound annoyed, but he thought he probably failed because he was actually impressed. He was impressed because Ike was eleven and had never snuck out of his house before…but he was also impressed because he had the guts to sneak out at all. "Hey, I said sorry!" Ike sat down next to Cartman. "So, I wanted to tell you something," he said. "I would hope so," Cartman said, glaring. "Otherwise I wouldn't have left the warmth of my house." Ike smiled at him, he knew it was pretty cold outside, he just didn't mind it as much. "I told Kyle you were my best friend," Ike said unexpectedly. Cartman looked at him. "Am I?" he asked softly. "Well…sure. I don't really have too many other friends." Cartman nodded, he could understand that perfectly. And he could understand why Ike didn't have too many friends. Intelligence is and probably always will be something that's laughed at in school, at least until you get to college. Also, his Canadian background was a perfect excuse to make fun of him – Cartman probably would, if he wasn't afraid of hurting Ike's feelings. He wasn't sure why he cared in the first place, but the fact remained that he did, and he couldn't ignore it. "I know how you feel. School sucks." Ike looked confused. "No, not school, just the people in my class." "Exactly," Cartman pointed out. "School." Ike sighed. He knew that he was also weird for his love of school. Other kids were always finding excuses not to attend, but Ike would probably be there even if he really was sick. "So…will you be my best friend?" he asked Cartman nervously. Cartman glanced at him suspiciously. "Ah, what the hell," he decided. "Thanks, Eric!" Ike said, throwing his arms around his new best friend. Cartman shoved him off. "Get off me, fag! I don't do hugs. And most of my friends call me 'Cartman'" he pointed out. "Okay," Ike said, agreeable as always, even though he looked a bit hurt. "I feel a lot better now that I'm not lying to Kyle!" he walked back towards his house. Cartman rolled his eyes. _Ugh, honesty,_ he thought. Then he realized that he had just agreed to be a Jew's best friend. "Aw, goddamnit!"

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**Author's Note: **So, their relationship should be starting at the end of the next chapter, unless I end up writing too much, but then I'll put it in the chapter after that instead. Let me know if you think I've paced it too fast. I don't think so because the story is supposed to mainly focus on their relationship and how people accept it and all that. Can't really do that if there's no relationship to speak of. But I'm always open to suggestions!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I do not own South Park, and probably will not in the future either.

**Author's Note: **Okay, so I guess it's been long enough that I could officially say this had gone on hiatus. I'm sorry, I really am. Updates are going to be forever from now on…I am flying back home tomorrow to take care of my grandmother, because she's dying and she needs someone there to help her go through all her stuff. We've always been close so I'm going until school starts again. And then, even though I'll be online a lot (all online classes, yay!) I have to focus to make up for my horrible grades last semester.

On a side note, when I've had inspiration I've been working on other stories. However, from now on I think I won't post them until they're completely written. TOO MUCH PRESSURE! I have like 4 or 5 unfinished stories up here right now lol. So now that you've listened to my pathetic rambling…onward!

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**Midnight Dream: Chapter Four**

Sneaking back inside was much harder than Ike had imagined. To sneak out of the house, he had simply dropped to the ground from his window – well, climbed down, but it didn't take too much effort. Unfortunately, he couldn't sneak back in the same way, because he didn't know how to climb up the side of the house. He finally opted to just walk through the front door quietly. It actually worked, too, until he accidentally hit the one squeaky step on the stairs and his parents came running out to see what was going on.

_Being a genius doesn't do you much good when your mind goes blank in critical situations, _thought Ike as he stared up into the angry face of his mother. "Hi, Mom," he said with a smile. Maybe he could just bullshit his way out of this one. "What's up?" His mother looked furious. "I could ask you the same question, Ike. What are you doing?" "I was outside," he replied calmly. There was no way he could deny that, what with his coat-and-boots outfit and the fact that snow was now melting on the stairs. "Oh? And what were you doing outside?" He faltered. "Nothing." "Nothing? _Nothing!?_ Ike, I wasn't born yesterday. I'm sorry, but you're grounded until you can give me a satisfactory answer."

So now he was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He wasn't really tired, but he didn't really feel awake enough to stay up, either. He sighed, and put his pillow over his head. He really hated being grounded. It didn't happen too often, seeing as his mother would often lift it due to his grades, but it still happened too much, in his opinion. He could feel something that he had never felt before, yet he knew what it was. It was the feeling of being complete. He smiled. It was because he had a best friend now, he knew. And even if Kyle didn't approve of it, did it really matter? He could make his own bad decisions. But he was sure this wasn't one of them.

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Cartman still sat down on the bench at Stark's Pond, waiting, although he wasn't sure what he was waiting for. Maybe he was waiting for God to strike him down for being friends with a Jew. Then he jumped up and swore. He realized he had been sitting out in the cold for twenty extra minutes that he could have been home watching television! He half-ran back to his house, panting as he reached the door. He felt odd. Kind of…proud, if he had to put a word to it. He was friends with Ike…wait. What would that do to Kyle? Cartman paused as he entered his home, thinking that the Jew would most likely be very unhappy with Ike's decision. Ike himself might not actually be happy with his decision, but Cartman pushed this out of his mind. All this time, he had the perfect weapon against Kyle…he just didn't know how to use it before now.

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The next day, Ike was woken up by a loud knocking on the door. "Ugh…" he groaned as he got out of bed. He noticed Kyle sitting on the couch. "Aren't you going to get that?" Ike shot at him, glaring. "No," said Kyle. Ike groaned again and headed towards the door. "Cartman!" he yelled, and darted behind the open door. "What are you doing here?" Out the corner of his eyes, Cartman could see Kyle staring open-mouthed at him. He tried his best to suppress a smile, and turned to Ike. "I was just wondering if you wanted to come over to my house later today," he directed at Ike. "Sure!" he replied happily, not bothering to look over his shoulder at his brother, who was advancing towards the two friends. "What time?" Cartman grinned. "Whenever you want…I don't mind at all, I'll be there." Ike smiled and ran upstairs, telling Cartman to just wait for him. Cartman moved to step into the house, but found his path blocked by Kyle. "Yes?" he asked innocently. "Cartman! You son of a bitch! What are you doing here?" "First of all, you Jewish piece of crap, your mom is much, much, bitchier than my mom. Second of all, whatever do you mean?" The sweet tone was back in his voice with the last sentence. "Oh, I'm sorry, Cartman," Kyle said sarcastically. "What I meant to say was, your diet must be really unsuccessful because you're fatter than ever." "Ay! Don't call me fat, you fucking Jew!" Cartman screamed. "Then don't fuck with my little brother," Kyle glared at him, a menacing look in his eyes. "I told him to stay away from you. Apparently, he didn't listen. So now I'll tell you: Stay away from him, or you'll pay."

Kyle backed up as Ike ran back down the stairs. "Okay, I'm ready!" he said. Cartman rolled his eyes. Ike was smart, and when he talked you could tell he was intelligent…but he was just so excitable. He still managed to sound like a little kid a lot, if only because of that. It was exasperating. _But rather cute,_ mused Cartman. He stopped short. Cute? Why did he think that? He shook his head to clear the unwelcome thought. "Cartman?" Ike stopped and looked at him. "Are you okay?" "Um…yeah,"he answered slowly. "Fine…just fine." Ike frowned. "You don't sound fine." "I'm fine! God, Ike, stop being such a Canadian." Ike raised his eyebrow but said nothing. Cartman could act like an asshole if he wanted to, after all.

In just another few minutes, they were standing outside the door of Cartman's house. "Are we going in?" Ike asked. Cartman ignored him, and instead screamed for his mother as he pounded on the door and rang the doorbell. "Ah, goddamnit, do I have to do everything myself around here?" He reached under the doormat, but stopped. Where was the extra key?" Ike glanced at him. "You locked yourself out, didn't you?" he asked. "No!" Cartman said, panicked. "Okay, then," replied Ike. "Open the door." He looked over at his friend smugly as he saw anger cross over Cartman's face. "You win, I locked myself out. I don't have the key anymore. Happy?" Ike smiled. "Yes, yes I am." He took Cartman's hand in his own and gazed up at him. Cartman glanced down, shocked. What a fag! How dare he place his hands on him! But before he could shove his friend away from him, the hand was gone, and Cartman wasn't sure if it had ever really been there at all.

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**Author's Note: **I tried to leave you with a cliffhanger…and failed miserably. Oh well. I don't feel like this is written well, and I apologize. I took such a long break I forgot which direction I wanted this story to go in! Agh! Anyway, hope you liked it, even if you did wait a terribly long time for a pathetically short chapter :)


	5. Author's Note

**If you're not interested in reading the extended apology and explanation (which is the same for all of my stories that aren't completed), then skip on down to the end where I tell you about the updates on this specific story.**

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I owe everyone on here an apology, whether you like or hate my stories, whether you have read them a million times or not at all, if you've been waiting for the update or didn't care when I got back to it. But mostly, this apology is for the people who love my stories, and wanted me to get back to writing. Because I feel bad for leaving you hanging for almost an entire year. I feel terrible for making you all think I had abandoned my stories and was never coming back. And I feel even worse because I can't promise that this won't happen again.

It started during the summer. I went on vacation, and didn't have an internet connection for the month I was there. Obviously, I couldn't update then.

It continued when I got back and started my sophomore year of college. I needed good grades this semester. So I ignored my stories, and studied instead.

I won't even bother trying to hide that I've been having trouble with writing since I've gotten a boyfriend. He wants to be a writer, and somehow I feel like I'm stealing his career from him. I don't want to be a writer; I want to be a mathematician.

Then came winter break. I was grounded for all of winter break, and didn't have a computer. When I got it back, I wanted to start writing again. I really did.

Only I didn't realize I would be using that time to learn how to drive, and go to driving school to get both my behind-the-wheel hours and classroom hours. So once again, this was postponed.

Halfway through the course, I came down with strep. I'll admit that I'm almost never sick, and this was only the second time in my life that I've ever been on antibiotics.

On the eighth day of my antibiotics, I discovered that I was extremely allergic to them, and spent several hours in the emergency room for the next three days until I could manage the reaction on my own. It still took two weeks to fade.

Only now that all my issues cleared up, my parents went on antibiotics, and I was required to help them with everything because they were too sick to do it themselves.

And even now as I'm writing this up, my dad is in the hospital with some as yet unknown disease. I don't know when he's coming home, I don't know if he even will come home, and it's tearing me apart because my dad is practically my best friend.

So I apologize that I'm being so slow with the updates. I'll admit that from summer to the winter break I could have been updating, but I was too lazy to do it. If I had known all this would happen, I would have updated. But I didn't know, and now I'm trying to make up for lost time.

Thanks for listening and hopefully understanding. Continue on for the story update.

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**Midnight Dream: **I have a bad feeling this story is going to be difficult to update. See...my writing style has changed a bit. "Changed", meaning a constant writer's block. I love this story and I'm afraid of messing up the characters or the plot badly when I go to start writing this again. And unfortunately, this was one of the ones I never got around to writing the next chapter on. I'm going to do the best I can, but you will have to wait until I have less going on. With the workload I have at the moment, I am not capable of writing a story like this. I hope that in the near future I will be able to.


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